People spend a surprising amount of time becoming the wrong person.
Julie Odell writes about people who are trying, often unsuccessfully, to make sense of themselves and one another. Her stories explore the ways disappointment and desire shape the lives people build and the choices they make. Drawn to characters who are flawed, misguided, and deeply human, she is less interested in judging them than in exploring how they became who they are.
featured stories
Billy Jack
Published in The Intentional
The Boy
Published in Atticus Review
Wissahickon
Published in Foliate Oak
Louche
Published in BlazeVOX
Heat
Published in New World Writing
Whoa, Hey
Published in New World Writing
Blast
Published in Philadelphia Stories
Fix-a-Flat
Published in Five Chapters
about
A MacDowell fellow, Julie Odell writes fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines, and her story “Fat Lip” received an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition and is forthcoming in The Rumpus. Her nonfiction has appeared on NPR and, most recently, in Fourth Genre.
Julie has taught composition at the Community College of Philadelphia for more than three decades. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, retired firefighter and crime novelist Tony Knighton, a cabal of strong-willed cats, and Junebug, a loving, model-gorgeous rescue dog.
contact
Get in touch: julieaodell@gmail.com
Julie Odell, writer 